Does being an international student affect whether or not the URM boost or even the status itself applies to me? I'm Nigerian and I've heard that Nigerian-Americans are overrrepresented. Does that hold true for Nigerians as well? And does the boost apply to international students at all?

Since no one has answered... people here tend to debate the impact of international status, but I think consensus tends to be that you would still get a boost. Whether or not Nigerian Americans are over represented, for instance, would be hard to capture given the demographic questions schools generally use, in which you would (I would imagine) check “black or African American,” which includes “having origins in any of the Black racial groups of Africa.” There isn’t a question asking whether you’re Nigerian or Sudanese or Kenyan or what.

Now if it’s clear from your application that you are Nigerian (and I am NOT suggesting you hide that it any way), I can’t say that adcomms will or won’t treat you differently from an African American candidate from Atlanta or Detroit. But with regard to the boxes they need to check, it doesn’t seem to be the case that they have to distinguish between international/not, and for reporting purposes you would fall into the same category as African Americans.

However I’m not an expert on this and am answering based on discussion I’ve seen here. So if anyone has more authoritative information they should feel free to chime in.